15.5m
members supported nationwide
2.4m+
breakdowns attended annually
4,500
colleagues delivering services across the UK
For more than 15 million members across the UK, the RAC delivers services at scale. Each year, the RAC patrols attend over 2.4 million breakdowns, making reliability critical. By strengthening its recurring payments foundation, the RAC helps support their more than 4,500 colleagues as they focus on keeping drivers moving.
Intro
Supporting a seamless subscription experience
With a subscription-based model at the heart of its business, the RAC needed to ensure recurring payments were reliable, secure and frictionless every single time.
By partnering with Global Payments, the RAC strengthened its approach to recurring payments, achieving higher payment success rates, reducing involuntary churn and improving customer satisfaction. The partnership combines proactive support and a shared focus on innovation to deliver meaningful results.
Customer
Keeping the UK moving, one rescue at a time
For more than a century, the RAC has supported drivers across the UK through breakdowns, accidents and everyday motoring needs. Founded in 1897, the organisation has grown alongside the evolution of motoring itself, becoming one of the country’s most recognised providers of roadside assistance and driver support, helping members get back on the road when life doesn’t quite go to plan.
Today, the RAC serves millions of members with services including breakdown cover, insurance, mobile servicing and repairs, and driving advice. With so many motorists relying on subscriptions and recurring services, dependable payments are essential to keeping everything running smoothly. From joining and renewing cover to managing ongoing memberships, the RAC needs payments that work reliably and without fuss – so members can focus on the journey ahead, not an unexpected payment hiccup.
“Their strategic insights and forward-looking approach to emerging payment trends enable us to make informed decisions and stay competitive. Most importantly, their proactive support and deep understanding of our business make them a trusted partner in driving operational efficiency and long-term growth.”
Adam M., Technical Payments Manager, RAC
Ready to put your payments on the right road?
Challenge
Scaling payments without slowing drivers down
Accepting payments from millions of members – including recurring subscriptions renewing daily – the RAC faced a common but costly challenge: payment failures caused by expired or outdated card information. For motorists, a failed payment can puncture peace of mind at the worst possible time – right when they’re counting on cover to work.
“Partnering with Global Payments has significantly enhanced our recurring payments infrastructure, delivering a seamless experience for our customers at scale.”
Adam M., Technical Payments Manager, RAC
Solution
Making recurring payments more reliable
Through a collaborative approach, Global Payments worked closely with the RAC to review payment performance and identify where improvements could make the biggest difference. Two key areas stood out: strengthening recurring payments and reducing issues caused by outdated card details.
Reducing declines, improving success
Global Payments recurring payments solution ensures that monthly subscription payments are automatically triggered and completed without any manual work for the client or the RAC. Global Payments securely stores tokenized card details and requests payments on schedule, even retrying declined transactions.
The team also deployed Global Payments’ real-time Account Updater, which automatically refreshes expired or replaced card details for supported issuers. This helped minimise interruptions to memberships and reduce the need for members to take action when their card details changed.
Together, these solutions created a more resilient, future-ready payments foundation—handling card updates and renewals behind the scenes. Without adding extra work for the RAC teams or unnecessary friction for members.
Impact
A partnership built on collaboration and results
What continues to make this partnership thrive is Global Payments’ commitment to proactive support and shared success. The teams meet regularly through bi-weekly and monthly performance reviews, along with quarterly business reviews, bringing together the RAC’s payments, finance and operation teams to track progress and align on priorities.
These sessions focus on practical performance measures, including recurring payment success rates, Account Updater match rates and overall processing trends. By reviewing results together and addressing issues early, the RAC can continuously improve payment performance while reducing operational complexity.
The outcome is a smoother experience for members, from sign-up through renewal, with fewer interruptions and less administrative effort behind the scenes.
Building for the future of payments
As the RAC’s trusted payments partner, Global Payments is already working with the organisation to explore what comes next.
For Global Payments, success goes beyond processing transactions. It means customers grow, deliver reliable and intuitive experiences, and stay ready for what’s ahead. With Global Payments and the RAC’s partnership behind the wheel, the road ahead looks bright.
Built for scale. Ready for what’s next.
